By: Kebba AF Touray
The question that is on farmers’ lips in the Upper River Region (URR), is the whereabouts of the funds recently announced by Government to purchase their nuts.
This was confirmed to this reporter in an interview with most farmers in the Region, that news of the said fund was received with a lot of relief, only for this relief to start dwindling more and more; that this is due largely to the unavailability of cash at groundnut buying points in Wuli and Sandu districts.
According to Sulayman Batchilly, he was relieved upon hearing the news of the availability of funds to purchase their nuts and thought their cash trap Secco, will start paying them within a week; but that the long wait in the availability of cash at their Secco, has killed his aspirations and expectations of this Government.
“I took five bags of groundnuts to our Secco three months ago, and have not been able to lay hands on my money up to now,” he told this reporter.
Jamanka Chondi on his part said: “We appreciate the infrastructural crusade of the current Government in our area. But lack of cash at our Secco, remains our major nightmare. We call on the authorities to look into the issue and provide us solutions.”
Ebrima Manneh reiterated similar remarks and said he relies on the sales from his groundnuts to fend for his family in terms of paying his children’s tuition fees, health and the feeding needs of the family.
